Jobs for the yard in February

Vegetables

• Look through bulb catalogues and books to find ones that you like and that suit our climate.

• Trim back wayward shoots of wisteria to keep it under control.

It’s important to keep up regular watering of citrus while they are flowering and developing small fruits.

• Citrus leaf miner causes ugly distorted leaves with silvery trails in the leaf tissue. Meyer lemons are particularly susceptible. Pest Oil is a non-toxic control, spray when new growth is about 1 cm long, reapply every 2-3 weeks. February is a crucial time to spray.

• Fertilise your camellia sasanqua bushes as the buds appear. Use a special camellia and azalea fertiliser.

• Look at areas which have been saturated with the rains – they may need some underground drainage to take the and raise them for planting in March and April.

• To treat lawn grubs, try sprinkling the area with a little laundry powder, and then water it in. The grubs will come to the surface and the birds will eat them.

• Prune back pelargonium hard at the end of the month. Use the cuttings to strike new plants to use in your garden or to give away to friends and family.

• Prepare beds for planting of spring bulbs. This means deep digging, adding compost and manures.

• Start thinking about what spring flowering bulbs you would like to plant in autumn.

• Lettuce can be planted from now until June; choose leafy varieties until the weather cools down.

• Each month between January and May, apply 20g of pelletised manure around your pawpaw trees. Treat with a copper spray to prevent black spot.

• Cover tender plants with shade cloth when really hot days are predicted.

• Prune your azaleas, camellias, tibouchinas and gardenias. Afterwards, give their soil a drenching of 1-2 teaspoons of Epsom salts in a 9L watering can.

• Continue your rose black spot preventative program by spraying with a rose fungicide.

Plant eggplant, capsicum, radish, cucumber, lettuce, sweet corn, beetroot, zucchini, leek, silver beet, parsnip, potato, rhubarb, turnip, choko, pumpkin, snake beans, carrot, celery, melons, spring onion, squash and sweet potato.

Flowers

Plant zinnia, marigold, linaria, vinca, cosmos, petunia, portulaca, salvia, cyclamen, primula, cleome, begonia, ageratum, lobelia, viola, celosia, gomphrena, nasturtium, pansy, Iceland poppy, verbena, snapdragon, chrysanthemum, and coleus.